Baxter Faces Lawsuit; 3M Won't Be Included - St. Paul Pioneer Press - November 10, 2001

Baxter Faces Lawsuit; 3M Won't Be Included Staff and wire reports
St. Paul Pioneer Press
November 10, 2001

A Chicago law firm plans to sue Baxter International over a faulty dialyzer that contributed to more than 50 deaths around the world -- but it has no plans to sue 3M Co., which made the chemical directly linked to the deaths. Hal Kleinman, an attorney with Kenneth B. Moll & Associates, said 3M won't be a defendant when his firm files a class-action suit against Baxter in the Circuit Court of Cook County. Maplewood-based 3M made the chemical called 5070 that Baxter used to test dialyzers, filters used in dialysis, for leaks. A residue that remained in the filters apparently caused the deaths. 3M has said 5070, generally used for cooling in electronics manufacturing, wasn't intended for use in the medical-device industry, and that it didn't know Baxter was using the chemical until very recently.